ASCO 2021 | OPTIMA II: de-escalating therapy in HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer

Ari Rosenberg, MD, University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, IL, discusses the updated results from the OPTIMA II trial (NCT03107182): a Phase II trial of chemo-immunotherapy followed by response adaptive de-escalated locoregional therapy in HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer; chemo-immunotherapy involved nab-paclitaxel, carboplatin and anti-PD1 therapy with nivolumab. Treatment was highly effective with a 2-year progression-free survival (PFS) of 90% and a 2-year overall survival (OS) of 93%. Moreover, patients who underwent surgery after chemo-immunotherapy achieved a high pathologic complete response (pCR) rate of 67%. These findings suggest that response adaptive de-escalation is a promising de-escalation strategy in HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer and may lead to further research on the use of anti-PD1 in the curative setting. This interview took place at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2021 Virtual Meeting.